{Son}shine Birthday Party!

So, it may have been thrown 10 days after the fact, but I’m so excited to share with you Weston’s 1st birthday party! The theme was {son}shine, without being the typical “You are my sunshine…” so that meant there was yellow galore!
As it typically is, 1st birthday parties aren’t usually about the kid but it’s more for the adults. It’s a congratulatory celebration for keeping another human being alive for an entire year!

We started the party with Weston still asleep but shortly after everyone arrived, we woke him up, made him look a little dapper in his gray and yellow interlocking circle bow tie and blue fedora we picked up at target.

The cake was simply made from 3 layers of store bought cake mix and frosting since it meets the “dairy free” requirement of not only my kids but many of our friends’ kids. I wanted to create a cake that was reminiscent of a cloud and I achieved that by piping large circles of frosting and smoothing them out in one direction with my frosting spatula. Lather, rinse, repeat until you’ve gone all the way around. If you figure out a better way to finish the last section without it being super noticeable, please let me know! But regardless of that slight imperfection, I really like the way that the cake turned out.

It seems a shame that I still do not own a cake stand. Every party I throw, I grunt and say “I should just buy one!” but then after the party is over I rationalize not buying one. So I wanna say a huge shout out to my mom who came up with this solution. We took an old disposable salad bowl and lid from olive garden, put the lid on top of the bowl turned upside down and voila! DIY cake stand.

The smash cake was made from the remaining layer of cake that wasn’t used in the main cake. I cut out two 4″ circles and iced them. Needless to say, Weston was less than impressed and the idea of getting his hands covered in frosting did NOT appeal. It really is confusing since this kid gets into EVERYTHING and is no stranger to yucky messes.

The fare for the party was a simple (and delicious) taco bar complete with all the fixin’s (although I later realized that we forgot to put out the salsa and sour cream…whooops). Just a side note, I found 4 pks of those clear plastic tongs at the Dollar Tree, which was perfect for picking up all those toppings.

I wanted to keep the gray & yellow theme going in the kitchen and achieved that with subtle touches here and there like these fabric flowers and plush hearts mounted onto narrow dowels aka bamboo skewers.

In addition to the taco bar, there were other foods that held up the yellow theme like cheese and crackers, lemon/pineapple jello, fresh pineapple and bananas.

To quench everyone’s thirst there was ample amounts of sweet tea, lemonade, capri suns (for the kids) and water bottles. I did have plans and designs for the water bottles, but ran short on time (like always) and that little touch was left out. Oh well.

I wanted to share with everyone a snippet of the cuteness we saw everyday in the past year and I made a strand of sun and clouds paper garland to hang pictures from. I used some little clothes pins that I picked up at the Target Dollar spot earlier this year. I also used these same clothes pins in this years Advent calendar.

The table that got the most raiders visitors, was the dessert dessert table where we served marshmallow pops, golden oreos, lemon drops, golden raisins, butterfingers, and for the salty counterpart, popcorn and goldfish crackers. I accented the table with a paper medallion banner and some die cut sun shapes.

I accented the table with a paper medallion banner and some die cut sun shapes and 3-D Sun and clouds hanging from the ceiling. Those were actually the very first thing that I made when I got my Silhouette this Christmas.

For favors I picked up a bunch of tiny round containers from the Dollar Tree, 10 for $1 and filled them with lemon heads (my favorite) and had the hubbs glue a 2″ favor tag on top. Aaaand for those who are not of the lemony goodness persuasion, I had a metal pail full of individual gummy bears (also my favorite).

And now for the fun party of the party. One of the other things that I got to use my silhouette machine on was all the props for the “Photo Booth”. I drew out a bunch of shapes and using different paper from my scrapbooking stash, made over 30 different props. I also made the sign and slid it into my ultimate must have party decor item, my $.99 Ikea picture frame. I scored the backdrop which is actually a section of fabric from the clearance bin at Joann Fabrics. It was a steal at $3. The fabric is 108″ long from selvage to selvage and just over 1 yard wide . It was just the perfect length for our short 8 foot ceilings. The rest is history. I sorted through the nearly 300 pictures, and here is a little sample of the fun, starting out with my family of course.

It was a great party and I so thankful for the wealth of friends we’ve made since moving here just over 2 years ago. We are blessed above and beyond anything we deserve and it’s a testament to God’s grace in our lives.

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Meet the MillionAyres

Hi, I'm Michelle Ayres, the one trying to juggle it all. I'm a proud wife and mother to 2 awesome little divas 3 and 2 years old, and a bouncing boy born in January. I consider myself a "Jill of all trades" from crafting, to couponing to carpentry. I hope you find inspiration, ways to save, and rediscover the creativity buried under the piles of laundry, errands to be run and commitments to be kept.